MODs on console versions of Skyrim are totally possible

21 April 2011

By Miklós Szecsei

For many people, the platform decision for Bethesda’s upcoming RPG epic Skyrim is a tough one. Do you play on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 for the achievement/trophy support? Bethesda has already said that Skyrim “looks the same” when playing on a console, so should that sway your decision? What about MODs?

Traditionally, The Elder Scrolls series of games has had a massive MOD community on PC. People are still putting out amazing MODs for the older Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind. So for many Elder Scrolls fans, the PC is a no-brainer simply because of all of the spectacular MODs that hit the internet shortly after the game releases.

Even Bethesda knows this. Executive Producer for Skyrim, Todd Howard, recently admitted to Edge magazine that they would love to get MOD support for the console versions of the game. The thing is they already work, so MODs on console versions are entirely possible.

What’s the catch? Sony and Microsoft of course. Bethesda has already entered into negotiations with both companies in an attempt to reach a viable option for supporting MODs on both consoles. According to Howard, “We’d like to see it happen, because it works, it’s how we made the game. I think it’s something really cool about what we do, but 90 per cent of our audience is on the consoles, so 90 per cent of our audience can’t even see this thing. So if we can solve that we’d like to.”

The stumbling block, however, is that pesky means of distribution. It’s unlikely that Microsoft will let the delicate sensitivities of Xbox Live get upset by a plethora of home-made MODs hitting its distribution channels. Sony’s PSN would likely be the same. Howard admitted that “As far as the 360 and PS3, right now there’s not an avenue for us to make that available, but we’d very much like to find a way. We have talked to Microsoft and Sony, and so there’s a chance it might happen one day, [but] I don’t see it happening for release.”

For the time being it looks as if the PC release of Skyrim will be the only option for MOD support, which might make your platform decision just that much easier after all.

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